If it wasn’t a must win, the Padres won a “better win” game to split their series with Dodgers in Los Angeles at two victories each. The 5-0 win helped them extend their first place lead on San Francisco, Colorado and L.A., who all lost on Thursday. The Padres will fly down to Arizona for a three game series against the Diamond Backs. They maintained a two game lead over San Francisco in the National League West. Here is a game by game recap of their series with their Southern California rival.

August 2^nd, 2010 Padres 10 Dodgers 5

WP Clayton Richard (9-5) 5.33IP 10H 4R 4ER 3BB 6K 0HR

LP Hideki Kuroda (8-10) 4IP 7H 5R 4ER 1BB 1K 1HR

The Padres used a five-run fourth inning to jump ahead of the Dodgers en route to a 10-5 win Monday night. Will Venable hit a three run home run about a foot over the wall in right centerfield with one out and the game tied 0-0. Three batters later with runners on second and third with two out, Miguel Tejada fisted an inside pitch just ove second base into shallow center to score Chris Denorfia and Clayton Richard to make it 5-0.

The Dodgers missed an opportunity in the bootom of the first to take an early lead. With Matt Kemp and James Loney on second and first bases, Case Blake had a base hit to centerfield but Chris Denorfia threw out Loney at third before Kemp lolly-gagged across home plate. The run did not count and the score remained tied at zero.

The Dodgers came back in the bottom of the fourth and scored two with RBI singles by Ronnie Belliard and Kemp. But the Padres answered right back with a pair RBI’s in the next half inning on Yorvit Torealba’s single and a sacrifice fly by Venable.

Chase Headley hit his eighth homer of the season in the sixth scoring Tejada and Adrian Gonzalez to bring his RBI total to 39.

The Dodgers scored twice more with run-scoring singles in the sixth by Rafael Furcal and Kemp. Kemp hit a solo shot in the 8^th for his fifth hit in five at-bats. His 18^th long ball of 2010 finished the scoring at 10-5.

The Padres victory put them two games ahead of the surging San Francisco Giants and dropped the Dodgers to nine full games out of first place.

August 3^rd, 2010 Padres 1 Dodgers 2

WP Ted Lilly (4-8) 7IP 2H 1R 1ER 0BB 5K 1HR

LP Mat Latos (11-5) 6IP 4H 2R 2ER 2BB 6K 0HR

S Jonathon Broxton (21) 1IP 1H 0R 0ER 1BB 0K 0HR

Ted Lilly out-dueled Mat Latos in his Dodgers debut with seven strong innings to earn the victory on Tuesday night. He surrendere a solo home-run from Miguel Tejada in the top of the first inning for his only run given up. After that he was nearly untouchable walking none and giving up only one other hit. He retired the last 20 Friars faced before turning over the ball to the bullpen.

Mat Latos lost his fifth first game since June 4^th, surrendering only two runs. Russell Martin’s two-run double after a pair of walks in the bottom of the second proved to be enough for the win.

Jonathon Broxton got the save with a scoreless ninth in spite of Jerry Hairston Jr.’s broken-bat single to lead off the inning. Hairston advanced to second on Tejada’s groundout to first. Adrian Gonzalez then was intentionally walked to put the force back in play with one out. Joe Torre’s strategy paid off when Ryan Ludwick grounded to the shortstop for a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

August 4^th, 2010 Padres 0 Dodgers 9

WP Vincente Padilla (5-3) 9IP 2H 0R 0ER 2BB 9K 0HR

LP Wade LeBlanc (5-10) 6.33IP 8H 4R 4ER 1BB 6K 0HR

Vincente Padilla dominated the Padres for nine innings and got plenty of run support for a 9-0 victory Wednesday night. His “soap bubble” pitch, a 53 mph breaking ball, baffled San Diego hitters throughout the night, taking a no-hitter into the seventh. Ryan Ludwick broke it up with a hard single off of first baseman James Loney’s glove with one out. Chase Headley followed with another single before Yorvit Torrealba grounded into a double play to end the inning. His hitting streak ended at sixteen games going 0-3.

The Dodgers took the lead in the second inning when Jamey Carroll singled past Chris Denorfia to score Casey Blake. Scott Podsednik added two more with a single later in the inning. Blake also scored on Ronnie Belliard’s single in the third.

The Dodgers poured in five more in the eighth. Padilla got his second hit of the night when he blooped in Carroll with two outs. After a walk by Podsednik, Theriot doubled in both baserunners to put the Dodgers up 7-0. Andre Eithier then took Edward Mujica deep to make it a 9-0 game before Matt Kemp mercifully struck out looking to end the inning.

August 5^th, 2010 Padres Dodgers

WP Kevin Corriea (8-7) 5.67IP 4H 0R 0ER 1BB 0K 0HR

LP Chad Billingley (9-6) 6IP 7H 3H 3R 3ER 3BB 4K 0HR

S Heath Bell (31) 1.33IP

Kevin Correia pitched effectively for 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball and Heath Bell had a four out save as the Padres pitching dominated the Dodgers for a 5-0 win they needed to salvage a 2-2 split in Los Angeles.

With runners at the corners and two out in the eighth, Bud Black brought in his closer to shut the door on the Dodger rally. Bell coaxed James Loney to groundout to Adrian Gonzalez. Bell gave up zero runs and two hits in the ninth for his 31^st save in 34 tries.

Just a half inning earlier with Tony Gwynn Jr. on first, Chris Denorfia came up to bat after replacing Venable in leftfield on a double switch. He squared around to bunt and almost took a fastball in the face as the ball got away from reliever Octavio Dotel. With third baseman Casey Blake cheating for a possible bunt, “the Norf” chopped a one hopper over the leaping Blake and down the third baseline for a base hit. The ball somehow got passed the incoming Scott Podsednik and rolled to the wall easily scoring Gwynn. But Deno was running full speed right out of the box and slid feet first into home ahead of the throw for an in-the-parker that put the Padres up 5-0.

The Dodgers strategy of putting the shift on Adrian Gonzalez backfired for the first time of the series when Gonzalez grounded to the shortstop Rafael Furcal, who was playing his normal position, with Miguel Tejada as the baserunner on first. Furcal tossed it to second for what would seem to be a routine double play. But with second baseman Ryan Theriot positioned in shallow right, the ball went to third baseman Casey Blake who double clutched the transfer and was unable to throw out Gonzalez at first.

After a Ryan Ludwick walk Chase Headley ripped a single to center scoring Gonzalez and advancing Ludwick to third. Headley took second on the throw home. Yorvit Torrealba then singled in Ludwick and briought up Will Venable with runners on first and third with one out. Venable walked to load the bases for Gwynn. Gwynn had an RBI sacrifice fly before Kevin Correia struck out to end the inning.